I've always thought of Halloween as the start of the fun holidays.You get to dress up and gorge on candy then a month later you gobble up some turkey. The next month, you stuff your face with Christmas cookies. A few days later you look back at what you've shoved in your face and make a resolution that you're going to go to the gym and lose weight. Three weeks later, you're back in the kitchen making baked goods. Oh, that's just me? Well, fine then.

This recipe popped up in my reader as Baked Pumpkin Spiced Donut Holes. I don't like most spices that people use along with pumpkin and I've still never managed to buy a mini muffin tin so I made some adjustments. Since these are no where near the size of donut holes, unless you're eating donuts for a giant, I figured I'd give it a new name.

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350. Butter a 9x13 baking dish.2. In a small bowl, combine the 3 tbs. sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon. Stir to combine. Sprinkle over the apples.
3. Roll out the each of the prepackaged pie crusts and then gather together and roll into a ball. Knead the dough for a minute and then separate into 8-12 equally sized balls. Roll to 1/2 inch thickness.
4. Place the apples, about 3 tbs. into the center of each ball of dough. Fold the dough around the apples and pinch the ends together to seal in apples. Place seam side down in the baking dish. Cut a small "X" in the top of the dough.
5. Repeat with the remaining apples and then bake for 30 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, melt the butter. Once melted add the sugar, brown sugar, water, vanilla and cinnamon.Stir until combined.
7. Spoon the sauce into the "X" shapes in the dough and pour the rest over the apple dumplings. Bake for another 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
8. Let cool for 5 minutes and then serve immediately.

The smell of these cooking is absolutely wonderful. Tom tried one immediately and said that they passed the "taste like my mom's" test. I thought they were delicious!

If it were possible to marry something inanimate, I'm pretty sure Tom would have married an extremely large jar of sauerkraut instead of me. I've never met anyone that likes sauerkraut as much as he does. So in order for him to get his sauerkraut fix, I'm always looking for recipes that include it.

Directions:
1. In a small pot add the sauerkraut with liquid and heat until warm.2. Butter one side of each slice of bread. Turn the slices over and spread the thousand island dressing on each.
3. Assemble the sandwiches by layering 2-3 slices of corned beef on one side of the bread and 1 slice on the other. Add a slice of cheese and top with 1-2 tbs. of sauerkraut.
4. Cook the sandwiches on a panini press or in a skillet until golden brown.
5. Cut two sandwiches in half and place on top of one another to create a double sandwich.

After a long day at work, I love having Reuben's on the menu since they're so quick to make and really filling!

For Labor Day I went to visit my one aunt who lives in DE near the beach. During our stay, we went to visit my other aunt who lives about an hour away in a tiny little town about 30 minutes outside of Ocean City, MD. We started talking about my second-cousin Ashley's baby shower in October. Let's see if I can explain my family here:

My mom is the youngest of six children. There is a pretty decent gap between my mom and her sister Jeannie. Jeannie's daughter Wendy is my cousin, but is closer in age to my mom than me. Ashley (my second-cousin) is Wendy's daughter and is almost six years younger than me. Did you follow that? Don't worry, there won't be a pop quiz or anything.

Anyway, Jeannie was talking about what foods she was going to make for the shower and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make something. I immediately thought of sugar cookies. Because I have issues with overdoing things, I also decided I would make black bottom cupcakes and mini chocolates from molds.

The week before Ashley's shower was a crazy one. I had college homework up to my ears and Tom had to go to New Orleans for a tradeshow for work. I spent pretty much all week alternating between accounting and desserts. What an interesting combination.

The shower went really well and Ashley got a ton of stuff. It was really nice to catch up with family that we don't always see on a regular basis. However, my desserts didn't go over so well.

I had planned on blogging the chocolate molds but didn't get a chance to take a picture of them before we left for the shower. Unfortunately they didn't do very well in the car (it must have been too warm) and ended up in a gooey chocolate mess. Oops!

Ashley's step-sister Deanna brougt bibs and onesies for everyone to decorate with fabric paint. I had a bit too much for with these:

This poor baby is going to have a bib or onesie for absolutely every holiday or occasion imaginable!

Next weekend Tom and I get to go pick up our new kitten. I'm so excited! I don't think I've shared any pictures of new kitty with you, have I?

Isn't she adorable? She's a Seal Lnyx Point. Tom decided to name her Itty von Cat. I don't think she looks like an Itty von Cat, so I'm going to call her Itsie. Anyway, this is what she looked like at 7 weeks old.

And this picture, where I think she looks like a Furby is at 11 weeks old.

So Tom and I spent this weekend picking up new kitty supplies...a litter box, litter, the current food she's eating, food and water dishes, toys, and a ton of other stuff.

I'm really curious to see how Gidget is going to take it. I've had Gidget for 9 years now and she's never really been around other animals. She's quite used to her role as an old child. I'm hoping that Gidget will think Itsie is just too cute to be mean to. And hopefully Itsie will take to Tom more than me so Gidget can have me all to herself.

Anyway, now that I've overloaded you with cuteness, how about I share what I'm making for dinner this week?

Aside from Christmas, soups are the only other thing I like about cold weather. Did I ever mention how much I really despise cold weather? I belong in a warm climate where snow is non-existent and flip flops are the preferred shoe of choice year round.

But because I like soup, I tolerate fall and winter. When I saw that this recipe swap was soup, I immediately found a recipe to pass along. For this swap, I was given Cheesy Jalapeno Corn Chowder from Lindsay at Life and Kitchen. Lindsay has a lot of tasty looking recipes so I suggest you go check out her blog.

Anyway, when I got the recipe I immediately thought "Ooooo corn chowder!" Corn is one of my favorite vegetables mostly because its pretty versatile and one of the very few vegetables I think still tastes okay in the frozen variety. I've made corn chowder before but I included crab. I was excited to just enjoy the corn flavor.

Directions:
1. Cook the bacon and once cooled, crumble.2. In a large pot, melt the butter then add the onions. Cook until the onions are soft, about 10 minutes.
3. Stir in the flour, salt and pepper and cook for 3 minutes. Add the chicken stock, jalapeno and potatoes. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.
4. Add the corn, heavy cream and cheeses. Stir frequently and cook until the cheese has melted.
5. Serve with crumbled bacon on top.

This was a great soup to have on a cool rainy night. I just wish I wasn't sidetracked while making it or I would have cut the recipe in half. I didn't realize just how much soup it was until I added the corn. Luckily I had some extra space in the freezer!

If you want a spicier soup, I'd recommend adding another jalapeno. I really like spicy food and the flavor didn't come through enough for me. But I also love cheese and this was definitely cheesy so it all worked out in the end! :-)

Directions:
1. Peel, core and cut the apples in half.
2. Combine all ingredients in the crock pot.
3. Cook on low for 6 hours.
4. For chunky applesauce: use a potato masher to mash the apples. For smooth applesauce: pulse in a food processor or blender until it reaches the desired consistency.

Yum! I can't believe I've never had homemade applesauce before. Its incredibly easy to make, especially in the crock pot. I have no interest in buying the prepackaged or jarred kind again. Which means I may want to read up on canning applesauce.

I can't believe its the middle of October. I'm still trying to figure out where summer went and fall has arrived. Yesterday Tom's parents came to visit and we went to Milburn Orchards. The orchard is one of the first places Tom and I visited when we moved up here. I couldn't get over the fact that they sold huge heads of romaine lettuce for $1.50 each and that they were so fresh it lasted 10 days in the fridge! Try to find romaine lettuce from a grocery store that does that!

We don't go to the orchard as frequently as I'd like so I took full advantage on yesterdays trip. I picked up 3 heads of garlic, a gallon of apple cider, a huge bag of apples, romaine lettuce, cauliflower, a butternut squash and apple cider donuts. Even though it was barely 66 degrees and really windy, Milburn offers fresh ice cream and its just too good to pass up. I tried the Cookie Monster ice cream which is blue ice cream with two different types of cookie dough, Oreo cookie crumbles and sugar cookie crumbles. My sweet tooth was in heaven!

I finally got through one of my college classes and I've figured out a schedule for the remaining class. As long as the amount of work stays consistent with what we've currently had, I should be able to....get this....NOT DO SCHOOL WORK ON SATURDAY'S! An entire day to myself! Okay, well not really since sometimes I clean on Saturday and we always go to the grocery store, but still. I'm rather excited about this!

Did I ever mention Tom and I work for the same company now? Well, we do. I started there in July of 2008 and he started this past August. The owner's father is mostly an investor in the company but he still comes down to Maryland to visit our office. Since Tom was hired he's bragged about a restaurant here with really good crab cakes. Being from New Jersey, their seafood options just aren't the same and the owner's father has decided to come down tonight so we can go to dinner there and then he'll spend tomorrow in the office with us. I can't wait to have a crab cake!

Oh! A couple of weeks ago Tom had mentioned that he wanted to start cooking one night a week. He asked which day works best for me and I immediately chose Friday. I like to start all of my cleaning on Friday and I always feel like dinner is such a hassle that night. This week he chose frozen pierogie. I'm curious to see what he chooses for the upcoming weeks and what I'll be able to blog!
With my gigantic bag of apples I'm making apple dumplings, applesauce and something else to be determined. I'll have the recipes up soon!

For quite some time now I've debated on whether or not to create a Facebook page for this blog. I was mostly hesistant to make one because I don't have hundreds of followers but I finally convinced myself thats a dumb reason and made a page today.

So please come "like" me. Theres a button on the right side of my page. Or just search for Cookaholic Wife on Facebook. Thanks!

Right now I've only included my last blog post, for Maryland Crab Soup, but I plan to go back and update with some previous recipes as I work on getting new ones on here and onto the Facebook page.

*Over a year ago, I made a post for Maryland Crab Soup. Looking back on the post, I just wasn't impressed with the picture, the ingredients or the directions. I've decided to redo the post with better information.*

Unless you live under a rock, you know that Maryland is known for steamed crabs. And what is one to do when they have leftover crabs and no one to eat them? Make crab soup, obviously!

Now there is one time when you absolutely can not make crab soup. Head on down to a Maryland fishing/crabbing area and seek out one of the older gentleman with tanned, wrinkly skin and ask him what happens when you make crab soup while its raining or during a thunderstorm. He'll tell you that it spoils. As I'm not a meteorologist, I have no idea why this happens. But, some quick research on the internet says it has something to do with the combination of crab meat, cabbage and barometric pressure. However, there is just as much information saying this is just an old wives tale.

So believe what you want, but as a lifetime Maryland resident, I 100% believe these old crabbing men know exactly what they're talking about. They are right when they tell you never to order steamed crabs after heavy rains because the sand gets into the crab shells and makes the meat mushy so they gotta know something.

Directions:
1. Pick through the crab meat, removing any shells or cartilage.
2. Add the crab meat and all of the other ingredients to a large stock pot. Stir to combine. If there is not much liquid, add another cup of water.
3. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to very low. Let simmer, stirring occasionally for at least 3 hours.
4. Adjust any seasonings to taste and serve hot with crackers or bread.

This is one of those soups that you want to start first thing in the morning so you can let it cook all day. Your house will smell wonderful, believe me. I really can't wait until we have a deep freezer and I can make these enormous batches of soup without having to give them away.

I have to admit, with my limited amount of time to spend in the kitchen due to my college classes, I was a bit hesitant to participate in the October Secret Recipe Swap. I'd glad to say that my need to make new recipes won out against my limited amount of time.

Speaking of visiting websites, have you visited the Secret Recipe Club yet? If not, you really should. Then you can find out just how the club works and look at all of the previous reveals. What? You mean you don't want to spend an entire afternoon looking at recipes?

Anyway, I finally decided to make Buttermilk Biscuits. Would you believe that I'm not really a fan of biscuits? Its probably because the first biscuit I had came from KFC and was greasy, slathered in butter and lukewarm. So I figured a homemade biscuit is obviously the best way to determine if you like them. Then I realized that I had buttermilk biscuits on my list of recipes to make before I'm 30. Score! It's not very often I can accomplish two things by only doing one.

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Add the cubed butter and mix in until it resembles coarse crumbs. Pour in the buttermilk and stir until combined and dough has formed a ball.
4. Sprinkle flour onto a flat surface and turn the dough out. Knead the dough a few times and then roll out to 1/2 inch thickness.
5. Using a biscuit cutter, glass, or cookie cutter, cut out rounds of dough. Place the dough onto the baking sheet.
6. Brush the tops of the dough with buttermilk and bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
7. Transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to continue cooling.

I think I rolled out my dough a bit too thin because my biscuits didn't rise as much as I expected them to, but they were still high enough to cut in half and slather with your desired amounts of butter or jelly. When I went to cut out the biscuits I managed to misplace my regular round cookie cutter. At first I thought the size glass we have would be too big but it wasn't. So I ended up with regular sized and mini-sized biscuits. If you turned the mini biscuits into sandwiches I'm sure they'd be adorable for a party.

I know that biscuits and English muffins aren't the same thing, but with as easy and quick as these biscuits are to make, I doubt I'll ever buy English muffins again. These biscuits would be the perfect home to hold some scrambled egg and bacon or whatever you put on your breakfast sandwich.

When I saw that the category for this recipe swap was Apple or Pumpkin, I knew no matter how busy I was I absolutely needed to participate in this. Why? Because my reader is full of pumpkin recipes and given my current schedule it may very well be next June by the time I can get a pumpkin or apple recipe blogged. So I used this recipe swap as a nice way to force myself into fall.

Which ended up being not quite necessary. For the past 2-3 weeks, the weather has been a bit interested in MD. We've shut off the a/c and opened the windows quite a few times only to need to close them and turn the air back on again a few days later. It can't seem to decide if it wants to be fall or summer. So my allergies are having a field day. Did you know that you can get an earache and sore throat because of your allergies? Or that when your allergies decide that an earache and sore throat just aren't enough, they can cause an infection in your eye similar to pink eye? No? Well, me either. Until a few days ago that is.

Anyway, the weather managed to cooperate for me to make these candies. It was a lovely 55 degrees when I made them.

Directions:
1. Place a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Add the pumpkin, coconut, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix together until the sugar dissolves.2. Cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally until the mixture forms a ball.
3. Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Transfer the mixture to a plastic storage container, cover with the lid and chill in the refrigerator until cool.
4. Spread the chopped nuts mixture onto a cutting board. Use a cookie scoop to drop tablespoon sized drops of the pumpkin mixture onto the nuts. Roll until covered.
5. Return to the refrigerator to let set.

I'll admit, I was very hesitant to use the unsweetened coconut in this. Neither Tom or I are fans of anything coconut and I was worried the flavor would come through too strong. It didn't! We both thought these were quite tasty! They're a perfect dessert to set out at a Halloween party!

For the Labor Day weekend, I used up some of my vacation time and went to visit my aunt who lives at the beach in Delaware. Completely unable to not cook for 5 whole days, I took it upon myself to come up with a sauce for the pulled pork we had for dinner one night.

Peaches were still in season and I thought that peaches and pork would go well together. As my mom was staying with my aunt too, I couldn't get nearly as creative as I would have liked, because she is so picky and doesn't like salsa or anything spicy.

I looked around on the internet for a few minutes and came across this recipe from Epicurious. I knew I could make slight adaptations to this and it would be the perfect sauce!

Directions:
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Fill a large bowl with iced water.2. Score an X into the bottom of each peach.
3. Drop the peaches into the boiling water for 10-15 seconds and then transfer to the iced water. Remove from the ice water after a minute or so and transfer to a cutting board.
4. Once cool enough to handle, remove the pits from the peaches and roughly chop.
5. Add the olive oil to a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Saute the onions and jalapeno until soft, about 10 minutes.
6. Add the peaches and remaining ingredients to the saucepan. Reduce the heat to low and stir until combined. Cook for 30-45 minutes.
7. Use a potato masher to mash the ingredients into a thick sauce. Serve warm.

This sauce was delicious over my uncle's slow roasted pulled pork. Even my picky mother thought it was pretty good. Although a bit of an unusual combination, we ate this with gnocchi with a gruyere sauce and Korean cucumber salad.

In the past few years I've become really addicted to pizza. Previously, I could take it or leave it and just associated pizza with a meal you could make and eat quickly. Since my addiction to pizza formed, I've been on a never-ending quest to find new toppings for pizza. Cheese and sauce just don't cut it anymore.

A long time ago I came across a recipe for pear and prosciutto pizza. I honestly have no idea where I found it. So of course, when I went to make the pizza, the recipe was no where to be found. I figured, its just pizza, it can't be that hard to wing it. So I did.

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with foil.
2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add the onions and cook for 15-20 minutes or until the onions are just barely caramelized.
3. Place the pear slices on the foil-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with the sugar and bake for 5-8 minutes, just until the pears are slightly soft.
4. Spread the pizza sauce over the pizza crust. Sprinkle the cheese on top of the sauce. Add the caramelized onions, pear slices and prosciutto.
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the pizza crust reaches your desired doneness.

This was great! The caramelized onions and the pears gave a sweetness to the pizza I wasn't expecting and it was perfectly balanced by the saltiness of the prosciutto. Of course, Tom wasn't even interested in trying this but I definitely plan to make it for myself again!